208 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



" In the main, although we may not acknowledge it we look 

 upon our land, or much of it, as a pleasure proposition in which 

 the individual only is concerned, or so it appears to me. . . . 

 One in a hundred becomes a small holder, one hi a thousand 

 becomes a tenant farmer ; the rest who can find neither work nor 

 outlook must perforce migrate to the cities or across the sea." 1 



Mr. Acland foresaw the difficulties of getting County 

 Councils to act, unless men from the working classes could 

 be sent to the County Councils and their travelling expenses 

 paid out of the rates. He points out that he moved an 

 amendment to the County Council Bill proposing payment 

 of travelling expenses, but it was lost by forty-four votes. 



Unless there is some radical change in the personnel of 

 both County Councils and Rural District Councils he saw 

 nothing for it but to increase and use more extensively the 

 powers of central authorities. 



These were some of the main conclusions arrived at in 

 this Report : 



A Minimum Wage. Over 60 per cent, of the ordinary 

 adult agricultural labourers received less than i8s. a week 

 when all their earnings from all sources have been taken into 

 consideration, whilst there were some 20,000 to 30,000 

 labourers whose total earnings were less than i6s. a week. 



Owing to the increase in the cost of living, the real earn- 

 ings of the labourers in the low-paid counties had decreased 

 since 1907. Low wages lay at the root of the great shortage 

 of cottage accommodation in rural districts, and the housing 

 problem could never be solved satisfactorily without a rise 

 in the wages of agricultural labourers sufficient to enable 

 them to pay a commercial rent for the house. 



Many of the most energetic and independent labourers 

 were either emigrating to the colonies or migrating to the 

 towns. 



It was suggested that the legal minimum wage should 

 be instituted by some form of wage tribunal, fixed at least 

 at such a sum as would enable a labourer to keep himself 

 and an average family in a state of physical efficiency, and 

 to pay a commercial rent for his cottage. If a farmer was 



1 Rural Denmark and ih Lessons, by Rider Haggard. 



